Positron Emission Tomography: A Technology Assessment

1986 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 577-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora D. Volkow ◽  
Laurence R. Tancredi

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a new nuclear medicine technique that has recently entered the clinical realm of medicine. Although it is a technique that can be utilized for assessment of biochemical and physiological parameters of any organ in the body, it has particular utility in the investigation of the brain. PET poses unique advantages over previous imaging devices. For the first time, it is feasible to investigate directly various biological parameters of the brain in a noninvasive way. PET allows for investigating the functional, biochemical, physiological, and pharmacological characteristics of various areas within the brains of normal and psychiatric or neurological patients. Although it has already started to give promising results, it is too new a technique to obtain an accurate appraisal of its true potentials. This is a problem that seems always to surface when one tries to evaluate the utility of a new technique in a new area of research. The problem is accentuated in the case of PET where there is no other technique available with which to compare results. This paper will discuss the basic principles of PET, its relationship to other existing imaging devices, and the issues to be considered when making a technological assessment of positron emission tomography.

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (10) ◽  
pp. 3401-3408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shi Shu ◽  
Li Zhang ◽  
Yi Cheng Zhu ◽  
Fang Li ◽  
Li Ying Cui ◽  
...  

Angiogenesis is a critical compensation route, which has been demonstrated in the brain following ischemic stroke; however, few studies have investigated angiogenesis in chronic intracranial atherosclerosis disease (ICAD). We used 68Ga-NOTA-PRGD2 positron emission tomography/computed tomography based imaging to detect angiogenesis in chronic ICAD and to explore the factors that may have affected it. A total of 21 participants with unilateral severe chronic ICAD were included in the study. Of the 21 participants, 19 were men; the mean (SD) age was 52 (15) years. In 18 participants, we observed elevated 68Ga-NOTA-PRGD2 uptake in the peri-infarct, subcortical, and periventricular regions of the lesioned side, with a higher 68Ga-NOTA-PRGD2 SUVmax compared to that in the contralateral hemisphere (0.15 vs. 0.06, p=0.001). The 18F-FDG PET SUVmax was significantly lower on the lesioned side (11.28 vs. 13.92, p=0.001). Subgroup analyses revealed that the recent group (<6 months) had a higher lesion-to-contralateral region ratio SUVmax than the remote group (>6 months) (6.73 vs. 2.36, p<0.05). Our results provide molecular imaging evidence of angiogenesis in patients with severe chronic ICAD. Furthermore, the extent of angiogenesis in chronic ICAD may be affected by the post-qualified event time interval, and not by infarction itself or the severity of the arterial lesion.


Author(s):  
Saugat Bhattacharyya ◽  
Anwesha Khasnobish ◽  
Poulami Ghosh ◽  
Ankita Mazumder ◽  
D. N. Tibarewala

Evolution has endowed human race with the most adroit brain, and to harness its potential to the fullest the concept of brain computer interface (BCI) has emerged. One of the most crucial components of BCI is the technique of brain imaging. The first approach in the field of brain imaging was to measure the electrical and magnetic activity of the brain, the techniques being known as Electroencephalography and Magnetoencephalography. Striving for furtherance, researchers came up with another alternative known as Magnetic Resonance Imaging. But it being confined to only structural imaging, the functional aspects of brain were mapped using functional magnetic resonance imaging. A similar but comparatively newer neuroimaging modality is Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation neuro-physiological technique is based on the principle of electromagnetic induction. Based on nuclear medicine the brain imaging technologies that are widely explored in the world of BCI are Positron Emission Tomography and Single Positron Emission Tomography.


2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (5) ◽  
pp. 2265-2267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuezhu Zhang ◽  
Simon R. Cherry ◽  
Zhaoheng Xie ◽  
Hongcheng Shi ◽  
Ramsey D. Badawi ◽  
...  

A 194-cm-long total-body positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scanner (uEXPLORER), has been constructed to offer a transformative platform for human radiotracer imaging in clinical research and healthcare. Its total-body coverage and exceptional sensitivity provide opportunities for innovative studies of physiology, biochemistry, and pharmacology. The objective of this study is to develop a method to perform ultrahigh (100 ms) temporal resolution dynamic PET imaging by combining advanced dynamic image reconstruction paradigms with the uEXPLORER scanner. We aim to capture the fast dynamics of initial radiotracer distribution, as well as cardiac motion, in the human body. The results show that we can visualize radiotracer transport in the body on timescales of 100 ms and obtain motion-frozen images with superior image quality compared to conventional methods. The proposed method has applications in studying fast tracer dynamics, such as blood flow and the dynamic response to neural modulation, as well as performing real-time motion tracking (e.g., cardiac and respiratory motion, and gross body motion) without any external monitoring device (e.g., electrocardiogram, breathing belt, or optical trackers).


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